1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording material, more specifically to a sheet-state ink-jet recording material having a photo-like glossiness and the feel of a material like a photograph, and causing no rubbing at a head (a phenomenon of contacting an ink-jet head with a recording sheet) at the time of printing by a printer.
2. Prior art
As a recording material to be used for an ink-jet recording system, a recording material in which an ink-receptive layer comprising a hydrophilic polymer is provided on a paper support, and a recording material in which a porous ink-receptive layer comprising a pigment such as amorphous silica, and a hydrophilic binder is provided on a support have generally been known.
As the former type recording materials, it has been proposed a recording material in which a hydrophilic polymer such as starch, polyvinyl alcohol, etc. is provided on a paper support as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 080489/1981, No. 174381/1984, No. 220750/1985, No. 32788/1986, No. 160875/1988, No. 69388/1991 and the like.
As the latter type recording materials, it has been proposed a recording material in which a silicon-containing pigment such as silica is provided on a paper support with a hydrophilic binder, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 51583/1980, No. 157/1981, No. 107879/1982, No. 107880/1982, No. 230787/1984, No. 160277/1987, No. 184879/1987, No. 183382/1987, No. 11877/1989, and the like.
Also, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56552/1991, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 188287/1990, No. 81064/1998, No. 119423/1998, No. 175365/1998, No. 193776/1998, No. 203006/1998, No. 217601/1998, No. 20300/1999, No. 20306/1999 and No. 34481/1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,281, and EP 0 813 978 A, and the like, there have been disclosed ink-jet recording materials using synthetic silica fine particles prepared by a gas phase process (hereinafter referred to as “fumed silica”). Moreover, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 276671/1990, No. 67684/1991, No. 251488/1991, No. 67986/1992, No. 263983/1992 and No. 16517/1993, there have been disclosed ink-jet recording materials using aluminum hydrates. These fumed silica and aluminum hydrates are ultra fine particles having an average particle size of a primary particle of several nm to several tens nm, and their secondary particle diameters can be easily regulated to 300 nm or less so that they have characteristics of giving high glossiness and high ink-absorption properties.
In recent years, a photo-like recording sheet has earnestly been desired, and the feel of a material, feeling and glossiness close to photography becomes more important. As such a recording material, there has been proposed a recording material in which an ink-receptive layer mainly comprising the above-mentioned fine particles is coated on a water resistant support such as a polyolefin resin-coated paper (a polyolefin resin is coated on the both surfaces of base paper), etc.
In the ink-jet printer corresponding to a photo-like printer, a low-density ink has generally been used alone or in combination with a high-density ink to form a photo-like image. To obtain an image by using such a low-density ink, it is necessary to discharge a large amount of the ink, so that a recording material is required to have high ink-absorption property. A water-resistant support such as a polyolefin resin-coated paper itself does not absorb ink, so that an ink-receptive layer is required to absorb a large amount of ink. Thus, the ink-receptive layer is so designed to contain a large amount of a pigment to absorb the ink.
However, in an ink-jet recording material in which an ink-receptive layer containing a large amount of a pigment is provided by coating, curl (hereinafter referred to as “plus curl”) to the direction of a printed surface side tends to be remarkable due to shrinkage of the ink-receptive layer by drying. When the plus curl becomes remarkable, a phenomenon that the recording material and an ink-jet head of a printer are contacted to each other at the time of printing (hereinafter referred to as “head rubbing”) frequently occurs. When the head rubbing occurred, not only a printed image is damaged but also the ink-jet head is broken in some cases. The problem of the head rubbing likely occurs when a sheet-state ink-jet recording material having a relatively small size is printed. For example, it causes when a sheet-state recording material having a length of longitudinal direction of 300 mm or less is used, particularly when a sheet-state recording material having a length of longitudinal direction of 200 mm or less.
In recent years, high-speed printing by an ink-jet printer and high quality printed image are required. Accompanying with these requirements, to improve precision of dotted point of ink, clearance of the ink-jet head and the recording material tends to be little. Also, to obtain a printed image close to a photograph printed to a photographic paper, a printer which can carry out printing over the whole surface of a sheet-state recording material, which is so-called “edge-less printing” has been sold. In such a printer, the problem of head rubbing is likely caused.
On the other hand, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 2000-263926, there is disclosed that at the time of cutting an ink-jet recording material using a paper support to a sheet state, the recording material is so cut that a paper feeding direction through a printer becomes a right angle to a flowing direction of the paper support at the time of making the paper. This technique is to solve the problem of cockling (which is a phenomenon of giving a waved recorded material by swelling of the paper support due to absorption of ink) which is a specific problem in a recording material using the paper support and to solve the problem that a plural number of recording materials are fed to the printer when printing is carried out. Also, in the recording material using a paper support, it is difficult to obtain a photo-like glossiness and the feel of a material (a feel of touching) similar to photographic printing paper. Moreover, a recording material using a paper support involves a problem of likely causing head rubbing due to cockling.
In an ink-jet recording material of using a water-resistant support according to the present invention, the problem of cockling as mentioned above never occurs.
An ink-receptive layer mainly containing inorganic fine particles or containing a large amount of the same shrinks by drying in the course of coating said ink-receptive layer and drying or when a recording sheet as a final product is allowed to stand under low humidity. On the other hand, a water-resistant support scarcely absorbs water content so that a degree of shrinkage is extremely little. Accordingly, in a recording material in which an ink-receptive layer which shrinks by drying is provided on a water-resistant support which difficultly causes elongation or shrinkage likely causes plus curl at the ink-receptive layer side (a printing surface side) whereby causing head rubbing.